breaking news tonight. arizona, a gorgeous 23-year-old mom takes off on her tempe, arizona, home by car for a 1,000-mile road trip with a beautiful 8-month-old baby gabriel. mommy spends christmas holed up in a local san antonio motel calling the 25-year-old bio dad, claiming he would never see the baby again, even saying she killed baby gabriel. turns out mommy's trying to give the baby away the whole time to an arizona couple. mommy alone, no baby, hops a bus, heads to florida december 27. 24 hours after the last credible sighting of baby gabriel alive. her car, abandoned. december 30, cops find mommy in miami beach. no baby. car recovered, san antonio, baby's car seat still inside. when pressed, mommy says she gives the baby away to a couple she bumps into at a texas state park. bombshell tonight. just released photos emerge of baby gabriel just hours before he disappears. the pics from mommy's own camera, heartbreaking. baby gabriel, there in that motel room, looking thin, sick, tired, his eyes droopy, gripping a medicine bottle. these photos confirming the story of the babysitter, who sits for baby gabriel at that motel who says the baby, thin, dirty, frightened. alternately screaming, then lethargic because mommy dopes the baby up. the room filthy, littered with makeup, clothes for mommy. hardly anything for baby gabriel. mommy heads out dressed for clubbing, in a midriff top, low-rise tight jeans and stilettos. after mommy's cell phone photos emerge, daddy, now terrified for the baby boy, behind bars, mommy digs in, even admitting she won't help find the baby because she's facing jail time anyway. what about that? police now confirm there's two parallel investigations. missing child and homicide. police hone in on the home of the would-be adoptive parents, persons of interest, searching ed then seizing computers. tonight, where is baby gabriel. police say they have their hands on new pictures taken days before baby gabriel vanished. they're on mom's own cell phone. >> i've never seen him like that. when i saw that picture, i started crying. i've never seen him like that at all. even when he's tired. he never looked like that before. >> we have to carry on with the course that he may be alive. but we also unfortunately have to proceed with the investigation that she may have killed him. >> disturbing new details, a missing arizona baby, little gabriel johnson, straight from the mouth of his babysitter, the sitter who was with him just days before he vanished. >> she told me she had already drugged him up with medication but if he started to cry again, just to give him more medicine to shut him up. he didn't seem to be sick at all. he just didn't look clean or happy. >> she basically told me if we weren't going to be together or have a family, neither of us would have him. i said, where's gabriel? she said, i already told you where he's at. i asked, where is he? and she said, i stuffed him in a diaper bag and suffocated him and put him in a diaper bag and put him in a dumpster. >> good evening. i'm nancy grace. i want to thank you for being with us. bombshell tonight, just released, photos emerge of baby gabriel just hours before he disappears. >> these are the last known photos of gabriel from the san antonio hotel room where the boy may have been drugged. >> tempe, arizona, police found the pictures on a camera belonging to his mother, elizabeth johnson, date stamped december 26th. the last day he was seen alive. in one photo, gabriel's holding what looks like a medicine bottle. >> she said gabriel had already been given medicine and if he began crying, to just give him some more. >> she said if the baby starts crying, just give him more tylenol? >> she said to give him more medicine to shut him up. >> yeah, she would want to shut him up. i wouldn't want to believe she would do it that way. whenever we were at our house or something, she didn't want to listen to him cry. she always told me to shut him up and put him in his crib or in the other room. >> there was a sharp knife in the room. >> one thing that i noticed that sort of scared me a little bit, she had kind of like a butcher knife next to her bed. >> the sitter says mother seemed detached from her son. >> she wasn't, you know, affectionate with gabriel or anything. it didn't seem like she really wanted him. the room didn't look suitable for a baby. she didn't have toys, or, you know, books for him to read or anything like that. >> it's a very real possibility that elizabeth killed gabriel. >> she never wanted to hear him cry. just aggravated her and made her mad. >> when i asked if she would need me again she said she wasn't sure because she didn't know what she was going to do next with her life. >> straight out to michael board, woai news radio, joining us from san antonio. michael, what can you tell us about these just-released photos? some of them are just hours before baby gabriel disappears. some are taken on the 26th, the last day of a credible sighting of this baby. >> you have to wonder, why is she taking these photos? is she taking them because she wants to remember her child? not likely. remember, this is a woman who did not want this child on several occasions, she told logan, take that kid with you. i don't want that kid around. why is she taking pictures now? nancy, you also have to think, is she taking these pictures because she wants to sell this child? and she is sending these to a prospective buyer? these are the type of questions you really have to wonder, police are using these pictures to trace her routes around san antonio, where is she going, where is she staying, what is she doing? hopefully it will give some sort of leads to figure out what baby gabriel's last days may have been. >> you bring up an interesting point. matt zarrell, our producer on the story, she would not just take the photo and keep it to herself, okay? so what i need to know, have police -- i mean, they have not even told us, or i believe searched the land fills or the dumps until we talked about it on the show last week. now we know they're starting to search the dumps and land fills. thank the lord in heaven. but on these -- excuse me, was it a cell phone or camera? >> it was a camera, nancy. >> like a digital camera? an instant camera? what was it? >> we don't know exactly what camera it is at this point. but we know investigators are hoping to gain more information from these photos and develop a timeline. >> what i want to find out is if it was -- if they were taken on one of those digicams, digital camera, did they send them to anyone? did she send them, for instance, to jack and tammi smith, the would-be adoptive parents who have now been named persons of interests in baby gabriel's disappearance. we also know that police hone in on the smiths' home. they searched the whole thing and seized their computers, their hard drives. but then a few days pass and the police announce they're afraid baby gabriel is dead. obviously they didn't find anything on those hard drives, matt zarrell, that the smiths know where the baby is hidden. >> what's interesting is one thing we do know elizabeth johnson late last week was indicted. one of the additional charges was conspiracy to commit custodial interference. the question now is, who are her co-conspirators. is it the smiths? police aren't saying at this point. >> typically that is named in the indictment. however, in this case, i don't believe that we know who the co-conspirator would be. let's go out to andrew j. scott, former chief of police in boca raton. sir, thank you for being with us. i want to talk to you about the police investigation. we've learned a lot about where the trash, the dump, the dumpster in san antonio, at the motel 6, where it would go. in my mind, that should have been the first thing they started doing is looking for this baby's body while they looked for him alive. >> well, initially they did not have reason to believe that the baby was in some type of mortal danger. >> put scott up. mr. scott? >> yes, ma'am. >> you have an excellent reputation. but in my mind, telling the biological father that you smothered the baby, concealed his body in a diaper bag, and threw him away in the trash is reason to suspect the child is dead. agree or disagree? >> agree. you're absolutely right. absolutely. >> continue. >> yes. okay. having said that, and having been aware of that, you know, the first thing that they probably should have done is to confirm exactly where that dump would be. secondly, they would obviously have to go and create some type of a search pattern and cordon off that particular area. doing a search in a dump is an extremely difficult task. it's extremely difficult. it's a dirty task. obviously it needs to be done and obviously they're starting to do that now. should they have done it sooner based on what you're telling me? absolutely. >> but here is the good news about that, andrew scott. if you think back on the laurie hacking case, she was a young woman who went missing. her husband was immediately a suspect. it was about six months later that that -- those remains were found, enough to identify, in a land fill. so frankly, i mean, if you look at it practically speaking, the police really haven't lost anything, have they? we confirmed tonight that they -- the trash in that dumpster has not been incinerated. >> i disagree with you. they have lost something. obviously time's of the essence now. now they've decided to search the dump as opposed to doing it when they first speculated, that perhaps the baby had been dumped there, then you have cubic yards and tons of trash that they would have to pick through. >> exactly. >> not to mention if there's -- if indeed there is a death, the decomposition does deteriorate any type of viable evidence that might be helpful in determining what the cause of death was. >> andrew scott, your point well taken. you're absolutely correct. back to you michael board, woai. what can you tell me about these photos? we know the mom took them. what more do we know about them? they're just released. >> we were told that these were the only pictures that were on her camera. there was no other pictures. she's not going around sight-seeing, taking pictures. all that was on her camera that was found on her in miami were these six pictures. now, what they're doing is going through the camera and trying to figure out if they can recover any other images that are on her camera. this is part of computer forensics. what they can do is look at the memory card that's in her camera and try to find out if there's images that might have been deleted that might give us more information about the baby's whereabouts. but what's really disturbing about this, nancy, when you look at the one picture, there's one picture of the child sipping out of some sort of a medicine dropper. is this woman drugging her child? >> everyone, we are taking your calls live tonight. but as we go to break, we all know that thousands are suffering in haiti. don't let this be your missed opportunity to do something good. please help. dial 1-800-554-8583. or just go online to umcor.com. she's the last one with the baby. she had motive to get rid of the baby. she's the one that's fleeing. she's the one that won't cooperate. >> prepared to stick to her story and stay in jail as long as necessary. >> i want to believe that she did give him away. so that maybe he's safe and he's with somebody that's taking care of him right now. i kind of see how it's kind of easy for her. >> what condition was the baby in? >> he looked very thin. he definitely wasn't happy. he seemed to be scared. >> the defendant is the only person who knows where gabriel is. if he's dead or alive. and she refuses to cooperate and tell anyone where gabriel is. >> this is a pretty destructive woman. and as it's been said so many times, she's very manipulative. >> she's shown unpredictable behavior in the past. so when she says she killed that baby and threw him in a dumpster, is that a credible threat? absolutely. >> we are taking your calls live tonight. just released, bombshell photos of baby gabriel. they are taken within the hours just before he vanishes. they're apparently taken off of mommy's camera. to michael board, woai. do we know what kind of camera it is? is it a digi cam or cell phone? >> a regular digital camera. they wouldn't tell me the make or brand but they said they found it on her when they found her in miami at that youth hostal. they didn't give a make or model. just a stand-alone camera. >> a digital camera that is not difficult at all to e-mail photos from a digital camera. any idea whether she sent those photos out, michael board? how do we get the photos? from the police? >> yeah. we got them from police. from the camera. what they're trying to figure out, we know at one point when she was at the homegates suites hotel, from the desk clerk said that at one point she did use the computer there in the lobby of that hotel. if that's the case, it's a very easy way for her to send those photos out. >> i knew it. i knew it. i knew it. i knew she got online from that hotel. unleash the lawyers. joining us tonight, veteran defense attorney out of atlanta, raymond giudice. veteran trial lawyer and author of "death witness" out of manhattan paul batiste. welcome, gentlemen. ray giudice, it's come to my attention tonight that mommy has actually admitted she's going to refuse to help find baby gabriel, because she's looking at hard time anyway on child abuse, custodial interference, so she's not going to lift a finger to help find her baby. thoughts? >> well, she may not being properly counseled. i think her lawyer -- >> you're darn right. you can say that again, giudice. >> if that's correct, somebody should be talking to her and saying, listen, these are what the indictments says, maximum charge is or punishment. you tell us how to find that baby alive and get it back to normalcy, and we can negotiate a plea bargain. that's what i would be doing for her and that's what i think her counsel should be doing, not telling her she's looking at hard time. >> paul, what about it? >> she has a right to remain silent. that's what the fifth amendment is all about. but ray is right. if her -- >> good lord in heaven. please let paul batiste tell me something i don't know. we all know she's got the right to remain silent. i'm asking you about her admission that she's not going to help police because she's looking at hard time anyway. so why bother? >> what's the admission there, nancy? she's simply saying i'm going to invoke my fifth amendment privilege. that's the message she is communicating. ray is absolutely right, if her lawyer can work out a deal with the d.a., to find the baby, then there may be some basis to go forward. but who was saying the d.a. is prepared to work with this woman or her lawyer? >> put paul batiste back up. that's not what giudice said. it's my belief, ray, and please correct me if i'm wrong, that you're saying she has been ill-advised, that she should help police find the baby and maybe work a deal, not sit on her thumb and not speak because she might be looking at hard time anyway. >> keep in mind, not to be too critical of her counsel -- >> please be brief. >> she is a crazy girl. so her lawyer may be giving her good advice, but she may be hearing the demons in her head. i do think we do have to keep that possibility open. >> i will be back with paul and ray. joining us when we get back, marc klaas. thousands are suffering in haiti. don't let this be your missed opportunity to do something good. please, call 1-800-554-8583. or go to united methodist community on relief.com. police have released disturbing pictures of the little 8-month-old boy gabriel johnson missing since late >> why do we believe the child is alive? a lot of that has to do with we've got, again, we have photographs, time stamped photographs. >> they were date stamped december 26th. that's the last day he was seen alive. >> the babysitter cared for baby gabriel, we believe, in texas. could be one of the last people could have been one of the last people to see him before he vanishes. >> what condition, anna lisa, was the baby in? >> he looked very thin. he definitely wasn't happy. she just told me the baby's name. and that he would be hungry in about an hour. and then after that, she left. >> johnson was dressed provocatively and left for two hours on what she said was an interview. she received an odd call. >> i could hear the lady screaming at her over the phone. she said i'm sorry about that. it was my grandma. >> if she had a trigger go off in her mind when she was in san antonio, a phone conversation, discovery of some fact, that could have, i guess, triggered that instability in her or that could have been the day that that happened. >> didn't look like him. didn't look like he was happy in those pictures. >> logan says he doesn't know if elizabeth could hurt her own child. >> if she goes into her rage, she won't calm down until she's ready to calm down. >> i hope they find that baby. >> out to the lines. nancy in arkansas. hi, nancy. >> caller: hi, how are you? i watch your show every night. >> thank you very much. and thank you for calling in, dear. what's your question? >> caller: i haven't heard anything about elizabeth johnson's parents. where are they at? >> her parents are both deceased, to my understanding. what about it, matt zarrell? >> both parents struggled with alcohol abuse and passed away, the father in 2007, the mother before that. >> and she, not that they were that much good to her, not to speak ill of the dead, but she was tossed from one foster home to the next to the next to the next. and that certainly is not a good childhood provided by loving parents. i can tell you that much right now, matt zarrell. is that true or not? >> yes. what's interesting is the grandfather said she was a straight-a student and very smart and knew what she was doing. >> she had a scholarship to college and dropped out after a very short time. didn't want to complete it. nancy in arkansas, her parents are dead. she's got her grandfather. and you heard anna lisa, the babysitter, the last person we've been able to track down, that saw the baby alive, annylisa, who was it that called her on the phone and it was very contentious? they were arguing on the phone? who was that? >> she told me it was her grandmother. that's what she told me. >> all right, grandmother. analisa, what, to the best of your recollection, was she saying back to the grandmother? >> i remember her saying, what am i supposed to do, just go back? and that's all i pretty much heard her saying. the whole time it was the lady on the other end screaming at her. >> so the only thing you recall her saying is, what am i supposed to do, go back? that's the only thing you recall her saying? >> that's the only thing i recall her saying, yes. >> how long did the conversation last? >> maybe a few minutes. no more than five minutes. >> could you hear what the woman was saying on the other end? >> i couldn't hear. all i know was that she was screaming loudly. >> what did elizabeth johnson say to you after she hung up from that conversation? >> she told me, i'm sorry, that was my grandma. she's scared because my baby's dad is threatening her. to tell her where we are. and we're in a custody battle. >> i'm having a hard time hearing you. tell me again, what did she say to you after she hung up the phone? >> she told me that that was her grandma. and that her grandmother was scared, because the baby's dad was threatening her because he wanted to know where her and the baby were, because they were in a custody battle. >> okay. got it. thank you, analisa. let's go back to the lines. janice in north carolina, hi, janice. >> caller: nancy, how are you? >> i am good, dear. but i've got to tell you, after i see the photos confirming analisa's story that the baby's thin, lethargic, clutching a medicine bottle, you know, i've taken, i don't know how many thousands of photos of the twins since their birth. i don't have any of them clutching and sucking on a medicine bottle. any photos like that. what do you make of it, janice? >> caller: it is very sickening. what they ought to do to her, really my question was, why come the babysitter didn't recognize all this? why didn't she call social service or the police? >> good question. analisa, when you left the motel room, did you consider calling police? or what were your feelings? what were your thoughts about the baby? >> i thought it was kind of weird the way he was acting and the way she was treating him. i did consider calling cps, but again, after that i lost her number so i wasn't able to contact her or anybody else. and also, i didn't know how long she would be staying there. because she told me she didn't know what she was going to do next. >> how old are you, dear? >> i'm 18 years old. >> you're 18. i want to go to lauren howard, psychotherapist. lauren, what do you make of her giving two very different stories? >> well, i think there's a lot of run for cover here. i think it's entirely possible that this baby died and was not killed. you know, was not suffocated. she was giving him tylenol, which has a very easy liver toxicity, nancy. what seems to be happening, from her not wanting to discuss, like tell people, tell authorities where the baby is, because her lawyers have advised her not to, the advice would be, if there's a homicide here, right now, you're being held for kidnapping. if there's no body, there's no homicide. so she's really in better shape by being charged with the crimes that she's charged with, than murder. you know, the many stories here, i feel like are run for cover. i think something bad happened. not necessarily by design, by neglect to be sure. and now she's found herself in a situation where there are more than two stories. there are many, many stories. >> well put, lauren howard. lauren joining us out of new york. i want to go back to analisa, the babysitter who sat with baby gabriel, tried to cheer him up, tried to make him feel better. wouldn't play with her. anytime she would set him down he would scream hysterically. he was alternately screaming and then lethargic. analisa, i want to go back to the enfamil that you saw, this baby formula. was it a can of dried enfamil? >> yes, it was. >> okay. how much was left in the can? >> it was full. it looked maybe like she had used it maybe once or twice. it was completely full. >> okay. how many bottles did you see? >> he only had one bottle. >> did you see a sterilizer, to sterilize the bottles? >> no, i didn't. >> that would have probably been set up at a sink. okay, so no sterilizer. and as far as food goes, how many jars of baby food did you see? >> he had about three jars of baby food. >> three jars. did you see evidence that she had been to the grocery store, like plastic bags of baby food or anything like that? >> no, there was nothing, no evidence of any kind of shopping for food or anything. >> so she had been out getting manicures for herself, buying new clothes, gone on a shopping spree. but kind of forgot to buy any food for this baby. to dr. jennifer chu, pediatrician and editor of "baby and child health." she is an expert in her field. what can repeated doses of tylenol do to a baby? >> any medicine taken correctly can work very well. tylenol is a great pain reliever and fever reducer. but for a baby that size, in that bottle there are 30 doses. which are supposed to be spaced out four to six hours. if mom is giving repeated doses, even a third of that could cause toxic problems, such as vomiting, diarrhea. the baby could have lethargic, have seizures, go into liver failure and death at a certain point. it needs to be kept out of the reach of children and given appropriately. >> everyone, as we go to break, on a happy note, happy 53rd birthday to georgia friend mikey. and happy birthday to tennessee friend levi. hosting online crime and justice podcast. happy birthday to west virginia friend, freda. she loves quilting, canning, new recipes, and most of all, her son, her grandchildren and her great grands. the grafton mayor presented a proclamation in honor of her 100 birthday. and happy birthday to california friend josh. he loves books, movies, and his beautiful family, including a brand-new niece. over ten years ago, we shared the same hall of a tall apartment building. we met over his lovely jack russell. he went on to be a pr guru at new line cinema and lifetime. he just came to visit the twins and took them to see the fishies at the aquarium. happy birthday, dearest josh. everyone, tonight, thousands suffer in haiti. don't let this be a missed opportunity to do something good. please, call 1-800-554-8583. or go to unitedmethodistcommittee on relief.com. johnson allegedly told the babysitter she was going to an important appointment, but the sitter says she looked like she was going to a club. >> she was dressed like she was going out to a club. she was wearing very tight low-cut jeans. a tight blouse that was showing like half of her stomach. >> baby gabriel's mother is now telling police who are looking for the missing 8-month-old, she remembers details of the couple she gave her son to. >> all of a sudden she can remember -- >> everything is so false, so completely false. >> now all of a sudden she remembers. >> elizabeth johnson gave police descriptions of a man and woman she says showed up at a san antonio hotel with a brand-new car seat and left with her baby. >> the man was tall, not fat, but kind of big. he had short dark, really dark hair. she had long blond hair. and was about her size in frame. >> i just want her to be honest and say, you know, i think about it every single day, whether he's dead or alive. i want to believe he is alive. i just want her to tell the truth. >> we are taking your phone calls. live to laura, north carolina. hi, laura. laura, are you with me? let's go to jessie, kentucky. hi, jessie. >> caller: hi. i'd like to say you're a beautiful person. >> i am so not a beautiful person. but i appreciate you saying that. and i'm going to burn a dvd of this. and when the twins turn 16, and they start arguing with me even more, i'm going to play that back to them. okay? >> caller: yes. >> i'm already preparing. okay. what's your question, dear? >> caller: i'd like to know why they don't put her in with the inmates and maybe she would confide in one of them. >> you know what, jessie? you ought to be running that jail house, jessie in kentucky. what about it, lawyers? raymond giudice, paul batiste? what about that? why is she getting special treatment? why isn't she in with the general population? >> one, they may be concerned about her mental health. >> oh, boo-hoo. her mental health? her mental health? >> hold on. what law enforcement might do is put someone in her cell. someone who's probably on probation or parole, that will roll over on her, and say, i heard her say in the middle of the night that she killed her baby and testify at trial. that's the setup that law enforcement does. >> raymond, it's not a setup. it would be mommy confessing to a roommate. that is not a setup. >> that's your version. >> okay. used to be a prosecutor. you didn't call it a setup back then. >> i didn't do those sneaky tricks. >> batista? >> well, the caller should be working for the fbi. that certainly is a great way to get information. obviously elizabeth is a talker. and with someone else, she may well talk freely. it's a great insight. >> out to the lines. laura, north carolina. hi, laura. >> caller: hi, nancy. first of all, i just want to say my heart is broken by looking at these sad pictures of this baby. but my question for you tonight is, have they checked the dumpsters in the area where they tracked her gps to? >> excellent question. matt zarrell, we know she had gps now. amazingly the smiths knew about that and tell us they kept telling the cops that. the cops are now looking at everywhere she went with that gps. i really think, matt zarrell, that they should be looking -- well, too late for the dumpsters. that's been emptied into a landfall long ago. this child went missing december 27th. the last date that he was seen or spotted december 26th. she gets on a bus to florida december 27. have they, or do you know, have they gone to those locations? there was the park where she says she met the couple. there's a cemetery right beside that park. we know she went to a jack in the box fast food. we know where she was staying in her motel. they can tell from the gps everywhere she went. >> yes, interesting point, nancy. another place they could look is the bus stop, maybe the garbage at the bus stop. they have pinpointed where in the landfill that garbage has gone. they just haven't started searching specifically yet. >> back to marc klaas, founder of klaas kids foundation. the police are trying everything they know to do right now. >> well, i've heard a couple of good suggestions. the whole idea of putting the snitch in her cell makes all the sense in the world. for all the reasons that have been stated. >> i think she needs to go to the general population. >> yeah. but you know what, it's not a prisoner's job to extract prison justice on another prisoner. >> i didn't say that. >> no, but that might be a concern. that might be a reason they don't want to do that. people that harm babies are not well thought of in the general population. there is even an honor among thieves. and that basically is where it's at. that may be -- >> marc klaas, how many times have i heard commentators talk about jail house justice. i only know of two people that were killed behind bars. one was a serial killer, all right? who ate his victims afterwards. he was killed in a wisconsin jail. >> right. >> and the second was a catholic priest who happened to run into one of his molestation victims behind bars. bye-bye. those are the only two cases that i know of jail house justice. so i want everybody to hold your breath to think that the other prisoners are going to extract a confession from her. >> you know, i'm not holding my breath. but i'm just saying that is a possibility. and i believe that prisoners kill other prisoners on a pretty regular basis in this country, and it doesn't make it onto the airwaves. so i don't know how that goes. nancy, i think that this phone call that she had supposedly with her grandmother might be key to something. all they have to do is trace that back and have a conversation with the person who was on the other end of the line to find out exactly what went down. >> well, of course, they could always get that from the grandmother herself. but my question is, finding everywhere she went. the parallel investigation. these photos emerging of little baby gabriel looking thin, tired and dirty. congratulations to nick abrams. he competed in the special olympics power lifting. they competed with lots of other teams. nick and brother zach, congratulations, nick and zach! thousands suffer in haiti. please do something good. call 1-800-55-8583 or go to umcor.com. [ music ] >> welcome to comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson, and my guest this hour is leslie prewitt, director of external operations, opportunity builders. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> can you tell the viewers about opportunity builders incorporated and what exactly the organization does? >> absolutely. we have been around for 47. we were started in 1962. we provokessa provide training d rehabilitation. >> what are the services you offer your clients? >> there are 170 that stay in our warehouse that do packaging then we have 180 individuals that go out and work for local employer. >> you have the employers who are helping out and also having the contracts to give those, like you said, in the warehouse employment possibilities. >> absolutely. we're always looking to new contracts to fulfill, inside of our warehouse and then outside we're always looking for new employers to hire our adults. >> now all of this, i know it takes funding, and you've got a fund-raiser coming up. >> right. >> so tell us about your mardi gras. >> well, hence the beads so you know why i'm wearing beads. we are very proud of our 12th annual mardi gras. we have live music, we have a casino, an auction, great food, beer, wine, and ice cream and it's a great night and a lot of fun. >> it does sound like a lot of fun. how much are the tickets to be able to enjoy all this fun? >> the tickets are $50 each. >> very, very reasonable, and it sounds like you're getting a huge value with the opportunity of the casinos and the great food and the auctions and the dancing. >> uh-huh. >> so with this, because i know it takes a lot of dollars in order to run the program, how do you plan to use the proceeds? >> the proceeds will help with our operating expenses, especially with the downturn in the economy and budget cuts, we will be using it to assist the organization. >> leslie, i do have a question. how do your clients become a part of opportunity builders? >> they are funded for the developmental disability administration. if someone is interested, if a family is interested in having family members participate in an opportunity with opportunity builders, they would call and then we would direct them to our director of employment that would start them through the process of the program. >> once they're in the program, do you also provide training before the clients either work in the warehouse or go out to work with your partner businesses? >> absolutely. in the warehouse, we do have an instructor to assist individuals with each contract, and as far as the individuals who go out into the community and work, we do training for those individuals. they have a one on one coach so we'll make sure the individual knows how to do the job before we have them working on their own. >> in going back to mardi gras, do you need any volunteers to help out, because that's a big undertaking you have so many different activities going on? >> absolutely. we can always use volunteers, but we can always use the ticket sales, and that's really a big emphasis for us, ticket sales and sponsorships. >> exactly. so there are sponsorship opportunities available? >> absolutely. >> how can they reach you if they want to buy tickets or become a sponsor? they can call our office. >> perfect. well, leslie, thanks so much for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> our guest this hour is less by prior to director of external operations at opportunity builders. for comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson. 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